Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. Unfortunately, if we are not utilizing the services and utilizing the funding, that means the community is not getting the services required. My biggest concern is that the detachment in Fort Simpson, where these people are located and positioned, their relief for these people who are on holidays and training, that has an impact on the smaller communities. If we are not spending the money in there, it says something. When I say public service, it is not about just working there and dealing with complaints, but the most important part is to educate people about the importance of the RCMP, working together, so it becomes a friendly environment and people become better citizens as we move forward.

Again, can the Minister make a commitment -- and this will be my last question, I guess, because I only have 15 seconds. Can the Minister make a commitment to work with the detachments to see what the budgets are, and share with us as committee, to see what is happening in these communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Sebert, the last question.

Mr. Chair, we do not generally deal with the operations on the detachment-by-detachment level. There has to be a fair amount of operational flexibility with the RCMP because events may occur that require a lot of resources. I do not think any of the money is being wasted. I could ask the commanding officer to attend before committee, if I receive that request. Of course, it would be up to him. Again, we do not have that sort of breakdown by detachment-by-detachment. I do believe that the operational flexibility I spoke of is required so that the police can carry out their duties, and I would like to think that money is not being wasted in any way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Sebert. Any further questions? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On this point, just to get some further clarification on on-calls versus patrols, the Minister referred earlier that it seemed like the way in which the RCMP was making coverage of certain communities was on an on-call basis. Can the department distinguish for us what the difference is for calls for service versus patrols, just so we have some understanding of that first? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.

I have to say that all of the police activity, Mr. Chair, is not driven by the number of calls. I think the police do a certain number of patrols in the community, just somewhat irregularly for reasons that are pretty obvious, but not necessarily in response to a call. It is a mixture, really. Obviously, they will respond to calls, have to determine the seriousness and how to respond, but my understanding is they make patrols to the communities, even if there is not a specific event or complaint. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is the point that the previous speaker was alluding to, is that we have communities where we will see the callouts be significantly lower than the patrols. If we are to use a community like Detah as an example, it is about a 1:4 difference, it seems like, the callouts versus the patrols, and the patrols are significantly higher than the callouts.

Then, when you look at a community like that of Wrigley, that is supposed to have what is called part-time detachment coverage, you will see calls for service are significantly higher than that of the patrols. There just seems to be this inconsistent approach that the RCMP takes in whether they respond to something reactively or whether they are doing patrols for crime prevention. Would this be mostly because of a community's policing plan? I can't foresee any community not asking for regular types of patrols.

How one community got two patrols in an entire year is difficult to understand, yet they have a number of callouts. That means there is something going on in terms of the crime activity, but they don't seem to be getting the preventative measure type of patrols. Is there some comment maybe that the department could provide us with how that works, or is that because of community policing plans that have said they don't prefer patrols or what have you? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.

Mr. Chair, I am not aware of the policing agreements with every community. I imagine they have a certain amount of similarity to them. Again, there may be a bit of a disconnect between the number of calls and the number of patrols, but that may be the nature of the calls. Again, the police always have to make a determination of whether a call merits a patrol apart from their regular patrols. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The comment the Minister made is interesting to me. Are there actually policing agreements with communities? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.

They are actually called community policing plans between the RCMP and the individual communities.

Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the informative pieces of information that I received on a regular basis as a former Yellowknife city councillor was a monthly report from the RCMP detachment. Is this something that takes place in the other communities throughout the territory as well? Do they receive monthly policing reports? Do they know what the actual callouts are for, other than just the number of callouts? Do they know if they are for break and entry, etc., or what different crimes they might be for? That would be good information to know. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can advise from my own experience being on town council in Fort Smith that we did receive monthly reports from the RCMP, which involved, I believe, the number of people in custody, the general nature of the charges, whether they were traffic-related or crime-related. I can't speak for every community, but certainly in the larger communities I am quite sure there is that information provided to council. I would like to think that it would be provided to all of the communities, but I am not absolutely certain of that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is that something that the Minister can find out for us to share with us? Secondly, if it isn't something that is going on, would it be a responsibility that the GNWT could ask of the RCMP, or does community by community have to ask for such a report? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Sebert.

Again, Mr. Chair, I can't speak to the individual arrangements between the communities and the RCMP, but I can certainly find out whether the police do supply those statistics to the town councils or governments in those communities. One would hope they would. All I can say is that they certainly do in the community I used to live in. I would assume that would be the template for other communities also. We can check on that and get back to the Member. Thank you.